Formal sector workers’ participation in urban agriculture in Ghana: perspectives from the Wa Municipality

Abstract

This paper assesses the participation of formal sector employees in urban agriculture and their contributions to food supply in the Wa Municipality, north-western Ghana. A cross-sectional research design was employed with survey as the data collection method. Respondents were randomly selected from various public sector agencies within the Municipality. Logistic regression was employed to identify the factors influencing participation in agriculture. The findings revealed that majority (62.1%) of the respondents were not participating in agriculture. Respondents who participate in urban agriculture practice food crop farming or animal rearing or both. The probability of a formal sector worker participating in agriculture is influenced by sex, age, education, household size, finance and formal workload. Participation in agriculture contributes to household food supply through physical availability of food, income earning and savings. Providing formal sector workers with information about the significance of urban agriculture could be a way of encouraging their participation.

Keywords

• Economics
• Backyard gardening
• Food availability
• Peri-urban areas
• Investment
• Smallholder farming